Wael Ghonim: ‘Ready to Die’

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Wael Ghonim, the Google manager who was freed Monday after spending two weeks detained by the Egyptian government, is “ready to die” for Egypt’s cause, he told Ivan Watson at CNN Wednesday night. Ghonim stressed that there is “no longer the time to negotiate” with the Egyptiangovernment.

Ghonim has taken a leave of absence from his cushy Google job in order to become a full-time revolutionary. “We went on the streets on the 25th, and we wanted to negotiate. We wanted to talk to our government,” said Ghonim. “They decided to negotiate with us at night, with rubber bullets, with police sticks, with water hoses, with tear gas.” Ghonim admitted to Watson that he’s signed over his power of attorney to his wife, because he believes he might die in the comingweeks.

Ghonim credits the success of the protests to the Internet and social-media tools, and called the surge of protests “Revolution2.0.”

He also made a tearful apology to the families of the protesters who lost their lives in the last two weeks — and called for accountability. According to Human Rights Watch, more than 300 people have lost their lives in the protests: “This is a crime,” said Ghonim. “The president needs to step down because this is acrime.”